DCC said on Thursday it has rejected a £58-a-share offer for the former conglomerate from US private equity groups Energy Capital Partners and KKR, saying it “fundamentally undervalues” the business.
The bid equated to £4.95 billion (€5.72 billion) for the group’s total number of 85.4 million shares, excluding shares held as treasury stock.
“The board of DCC has carefully reviewed the proposal with its advisers and unanimously concluded that it fundamentally undervalues the company and its future prospects,” the Dublin-based group said in a statement. “Accordingly, the proposal was unanimously and unequivocally rejected on 29 April 2026.”
The US consortium has until the close of business on June 10th to put forward a new offer under a deadline set by the Irish Takeover Panel.
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DCC confirmed on Wednesday morning that it was evaluating a proposal from Energy Capital and KKR with its financial advisers in JP Morgan Cazenove and UBS – following a report in specialist UK financial news blog Betaville, which focuses on market gossip on corporate deals.
Shares in the group jumped as much as 17.2 per cent to £62.45 in London on Wednesday, to value the group at £5.35 billion. They fell as much as 6 per cent on Thursday, to £55.35.
“We maintain our price target at 7070p and overweight rating, as we await further developments on this and possible counteroffers and another improved bid,” said Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland analysts in a note to clients.
Energy Capital is a specialist investor in the energy transition, specialising in electricity and sustainable infrastructure. KKR is one of the most storied New York investment groups – set up in 1976, the same year that DCC was founded, by Kohlberg, Kravis, and Roberts – that pioneered the debt-fuelled corporate buyout industry.
The approach follows years of underperformance by the stock relative to target prices set by analysts, leaving the company among the smallest on the FTSE 100 by market value earlier this year.
This prompted speculation at the time that it might be in danger of relegation from the prestigious index if stock market investors did not begin to appreciate its key energy business. Still, the stock rallied from its lows in February on the back of a robust trading update from the company.
DCC completed a £600 million share buyback in December after finalising the sale of its healthcare unit months earlier.
It followed a £100 million buyback programme launched last May, soon after announcing the deal to dispose the healthcare business – which spans the distribution of medical devices to developing and manufacturing nutritional supplements – for £945 million in cash.
DCC also last year sold its information technology distribution business in Ireland and Britain to German-based private equity group Aurelius in a deal worth £100 million. The group has previously said it aims to reach a deal to sell its remaining tech unit, a North America-focused specialist in distributing audio-visual and lighting equipment, by the end of 2026.
